Prosecutors have carried out searches and witness interviews in Greece on Nov. 13-14, in a probe into fraudulent imports of textiles, garments and fashion items from China into the EU, via the Piraeus Port of Athens, with the French market as the final destination.
The investigation which is led by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Paris is probing fraud of over €5.2 million in unpaid customs duties and VAT.
According to the investigation, a criminal organization, mainly based in the Paris area, in the Seine Saint-Denis district, imported goods from 2020 to 2023 through at least six French companies, believed to act as ‘missing traders’, which would vanish without fulfilling their tax obligations.
It is understood that the criminal group undervalued the imported goods in order to illicitly reduce the duties owed to the French customs authorities.
The criminal organization is also suspected of having deployed an informal and short-lived logistic and warehouse platform, based in France, that received containers previously imported from China into the EU via Greece. The goods were then sold to customers in the EU, mostly in France.
Based on the evidence, part of the imported goods were shipped from Greece to France with the help of a Greek logistic services provider and customs broker based in the Piraeus Port of Athens.
The investigative measures were executed in Greece under the provisions in Article 31 of the EPPO Regulation, which allow for faster cross-border investigations.
According to these provisions, the EPPO’s European Delegated Prosecutors are able to request their colleagues in other participating Member States to undertake specific investigation measures, in a faster and more comprehensive manner than under the traditional judicial cooperation methods. Numerous types of evidence in electronic and written form were secured during the searches.
The investigation counted on the support of the Human & Goods Trafficking Department of the Greek Organized Crime Division (Τμήμα Δίωξης Παράνομης Διακίνησης και Εμπορίας Αντικειμένων της Διεύθυνσης Αντιμετώπισης Οργανωμένου Εγκλήματος), the Digital Evidence Examination Department of the Forensic Sciences Division of the Hellenic Police (Τμήμα Εξέτασης Ψηφιακών Πειστηρίων της ΔΕΕ), as well as the assistance of the French National Anti-fraud Office (ONAF) and the Homeland Security Service of the French Embassy in Greece.
The investigation is ongoing, in order to determine the extent of the criminal activities.
All persons concerned are presumed to be innocent until proven guilty in the competent French courts of law.
The EPPO is the independent public prosecution office of the European Union. It is responsible for investigating, prosecuting and bringing to judgment crimes against the financial interests of the EU.
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